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1.28.2011

action alert part 3 of 4: support democracy movement in egypt

Today and tomorrow, there will be events all over the world to show solidarity with the Egyptian democracy movement. See below for information about events in Canada.

If you - like me - cannot demonstrate in person, you can still support the movement by calling the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa and demanding that protests be allowed to continue without bloodshed. The 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak has never seen this scale of protest. I'm told there is a very real danger that the government may fire on demonstrators as night falls.

In Canada: Ottawa: 613.234.4931.
In the US: Washington DC: 202.895.5400.
In the UK: London: 44.020.7499.3304
In Ireland: Dublin: 353.01.660.6566
In Australia and New Zealand: Canberra: 61.(0)2.6273.4437
In South Africa: Pretoria: 27.(0)12.343.1590

You can also email Stephen Harper's office. Tell him Canadians stand for peace and democracy, something that clearly needs reminding. The government of Canada needs to speak up and support the Egyptian people. pm@pm.gc.ca

6 comments:

As I write, there are reports that protestors [in Egypt] have taken over police stations and attacked headquarters of the ruling party in several cities. Activists are now reporting that police in Alexandria have downed their weapons and are mingling peacefully with the crowds. And some police officers in Cairo are apparently now siding with the protestors. ...

[Note] the jaw-dropping performance of VP Joe Biden, as the Palinesque dimbulb and corporate bagman made clear the support of his boss -- the Nobel Peace Laureate -- for the bloodstained tyranny of Egyptian boss Hosni Mubarak. ...

"[T]he west" has spoken out. And it has declared that the Egyptian dictator is not a dictator, even when he is killing and beating his people in the street. It has declared that any complaints his repressed people have might not be legitimate -- and in any case, should only be addressed by the dictator himself, as he sees fit, in his own good time. Violence, repression, injustice, inequality, and authoritarian power as the sole determiner of "legitimacy" in society: these are the "universal values" being articulated by the leaders of the west in Washington.

For decades, the remarkably brutal -- and rottenly stagnant -- dictatorship in Egypt has been one of linchpins of Washington's never-ending effort to "project dominance" over the Middle East. If the Cairo regime falls to a popular revolution, it will send shock waves all through the world-spanning tentacles of the American Empire.

The dictatorship has received tens of billions of dollars in American military "aid" -- most of which, of course, circulates back to the coffers of war profiteers in the States -- along with other bribes for Egypt's ruling clique to buy their obedience to Washington's wishes. ...

(Here, in one particularly hair-raising [Wikileaks] release, Secretary of State Condi Rice suggests shipping Palestinian refugees off to South America -- a macabre echo of the Nazi's early plan to resettle Europe's Jews in Madagascar. ...)

On Thursday Jan 27th at 22:34 UTC the Egyptian Government effectively removed Egypt from the internet. Nearly all inbound and outbound connections to the web were shut down. The internet intelligence authority Renesys explains it here and confirms that "virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide." This has never happened before in the entire history of the internet, with a nation of this size. A block of this scale is completely unheard of, and Senator Joe Lieberman wants to be able to do the same thing in the US.

This isn't a new move, last year Senators Lieberman and Collins introduced a fairly far-reaching bill that would allow the US Government to shut down civilian access to the internet should a "Cybersecurity Emergency" arise, and keep it offline indefinitely. That version of the bill received some criticism though Lieberman continued to insist it was important. The bill, now referred to as the 'Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act' (PCNAA) has been revised a bit and most notably now removes all judicial oversight. This bill is still currently circulating and will be voted on later this year. Lieberman has said it should be a top priority.

Activists are now reporting that police in Alexandria have downed their weapons and are mingling peacefully with the crowds. And some police officers in Cairo are apparently now siding with the protestors. ...

If true, this is the most hopeful news! When police and soldiers realize they have more in common with the working people they put down than with the bosses who pay them to do the dirty work, solidarity is real.

In a similar vein, another blog I visit had this picture of another proud American product being used by the Egyptian authorities: http://samuraifrog.blogspot.com/2011/01/another-proud-product-of-usa.html

I'm sure Egyptian protesters hearts are warmed by the kind regards of the west.

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You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.Margaret Mead

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.Karl Marx

There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.Howard Zinn